PERSONAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10305, 4 August 1911, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Mr Thomas Collier, of Masterton, j will celebrate his eighty-sixth birthday. Mr Collier, who is still hale and hearty, and who worked at his business as a wool-claser up till last sea- j son; has lived under five Sovereigns. He was four years of age when King George IV died. Dr. Thacker has definitely decided not to be a candidate for the Christchurch North seat. It is stated that Mr H. D. Bedford j will contest the Dunedin West seat j against the Hon. J. A. Millar, and ,1 that he will receive the support of the Labour organisations, as well as of the Opposition. A New Zealand pioneer passed away near Hawera on Sunday last in the person of Mr Alexander Birnie, at the age of 75. Chief Inspector Fleming, who has been visiting the schools in the Masterton district, returns to Wellington to-day. j An old resident of the Tokomairiro J district, Mrs Thomas Fahey, died on i Saturday evening last. She was born I at Annadown, County of Galwey, Ire- j land," in 1838, and accompanied her husband to New. Zealand in. the ship I Melbourne," commanded by Captain I Robinson, arriving at Port Chalmers ' on St. Patrick's Day, 1861. 1

The death has occurred, at Nelson of Mrs Joseph Whiter a- respected resident, at the advanced age of 82 years. She was one of the earliest settlers of Nelson, having arrived there so far back as 1842. The late Mrs White came out in the ship New Zealand, a vessel well known to the early colonist, and she had to endure many of the hardships of the pioneer settlers. The deceased, at the time of her death, had been a resident of Bridge-street, Nelson, for no less than 69 years. The funeral took place on Tuesday at Porirua of Mr George Mexted, one of the earliest of the pioneers of the Wellington district. He arrived at the age of six with his parents in the ship Lord William Bentinck .on the 4th May, 1841. The family settled on the old Porirua road in the vicinty of what is now known as Khandallah. Mr Mexted was married at the age of nineteen to Miss Emily Barrow, and settled down to farming at Tawa Flat, where the family has lived for upwards of fifty-seven years.